Rajya Sabha polls: Setback for BJP-JD(S) alliance in Karnataka; one BJP MLA cross-votes, another abstains

The BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular) coalition in Karnataka suffered yet another jolt in the Rajya Sabha election as saffron party MLA and former minister S T Somashekar voted in favour of the Congress candidates on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Shivaram Hebbar, also a former minister, abstained from voting, embarrassing the party leadership in the state.

Amid cross-voting and the Opposition alliance’s failure to break away some Congress MLAs, JD(S) candidate and real estate businessman D Kupendra Reddy lost out on an Upper House berth, falling short by nine votes.

Those who got elected to the Rajya Sabha are Ajay Maken, Syed Nasir Hussain and G C Chandrashekar from the Congress and BJP leader Narayansa Bhandage. While Maken and Hussain got 47 votes each, Chandrashekar got 45 votes and Bhandage 47 votes. Reddy received 36 votes.

Each candidate required at least 45 first-preference votes to win. To win, the JD(S) would have required the BJP’s spare votes, its own 19 MLAs, and five Congress votes. Polling ended at 4 pm and of the 223 possible votes — Shorapur MLA Raja Venkatappa Naik died of a heart attack on Sunday — 222 were cast.

Apart from Congress legislators, three Independent MLAs are also learnt to have voted for the party. Janardhan Reddy of the Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha said he had also cast a “vote of conscience”.

This is the second consecutive setback for the BJP-JD(S) alliance in Karnataka, having lost the recently held MLC election for the Bangalore Teachers’ Constituency, where Congress candidate P Puttanna won by 1,507 votes.

Speaking to the media after the victory, All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of Karnataka R S Surjewala termed the results as a “victory of principles and ideals”.

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